Authorities search house where teen died

By ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com

May 08, 2008 11:31 am

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ELK RAPIDS — Police are searching an Elk Rapids residence where a teen died of a gunshot wound in November.

Authorities in five Michigan State Police vehicles and an Elk Rapids Police Department squad car converged on Anne Avery-Miller's house off U.S. 31 near Elk Rapids early today, the latest twist in a case once viewed as a teen suicide that's evolved into an open-ended death probe.

Police wearing blue gloves searched through piles of boxes and clothes near Avery-Miller's garage. Others appeared to take external measurements of the home and garage.

State Police Detective Sgt. Richard Simpson said officers obtained a warrant and their search is tied to the Nov. 7 gunshot death of Avery-Miller's son, Sam Avery, 16.

Simpson wouldn't provide details and deferred additional comment to Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop.

Koop refused to say why officers are at the home, but said a reporter "wouldn't be wrong in reporting" Simpson's reason for the search.

Officials haven't been able to determine if Sam Avery's death was self-inflicted or caused by someone else, Koop said, and he wouldn't provide details of the investigation.

Avery-Miller, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on a charge of larceny by conversion. The charge stems from a 2004 insurance fraud case after a fire at her residence.

She went missing for about a month beginning Jan. 22 and eventually turned up to face a felonious assault charge, which prosecutors later dropped.